


It Came Out of the Sky

by inbatcountry17



Category: XCOM (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Dialogue-Only
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 16:30:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14288916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inbatcountry17/pseuds/inbatcountry17
Summary: Inspired by Orson Wells's broadcast of War of the Worlds.A radio host at the end of the world.Note: This is entirely unconnected to my other stories. Can be read alone.





	It Came Out of the Sky

**Author's Note:**

> The radio station name and frequency is made up, though it is based on a real life oldies station. I also take some liberties with New York’s layout.
> 
> This was also originally written and posted to Tumblr prior to the release of WOTC.

_“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same … Yet, across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.”_

-War of the Worlds, HG Wells

\--

“Welcome back. The time is 1:20 AM here in NYC. This is Andrea Hill, and you’re listening to WMBS-FM 107.1. I’ve got some Sinatra and Dean Martin coming right up for you.

…

“And it’s the bottom of the hour. How about a weather report? What’s the sky like Dave?

“It’s a calm cloudless night, Andrea. The kind of clear sky that’s great for telescopes. A lot of amateur astronomers out and about tonight.”

“Oh? Something special going on in this morning’s sky?”

“Nothing NASA advertised, but we’re getting a lot of reports of light’s on mars. UFO enthusiasts are going nuts. Uhhhhh….Ah! Dr. Sutherland, an astronomer at Princeton, just got back to me. She says they haven’t identified the phenomenon as of yet, but she would like to remind the public that no one has found any concrete evidence of complex life on mars. People need to calm their imaginations.”

“Wouldn’t want an Orson Welles style panic, would we?”

“No, we certainly do not.”

“Think I could get away with playing It Came Out Of The Sky?”

“You know how our boss feels about CCR.”

“Okay, okay! How about some Guy Mitchell instead, folks?”

–

“Uh, listen folks, sorry for interrupting the song, but we got a call from one of our interns out on a coffee run. What’s going on Kim?”

_“It’s…I dunno…It’s…there was, like, a meteor that dropped out of the sky. But it’s not a…it’s a-it’s a-cylinder in the middle of the street. Everyone’s gotten out of their cars. I-I-I did too, but I’m not getting any closer. It’s got like a green light around it. I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit.”_

“Kim, what do you mean a cylinder? Do you mean a truck trailer? Did the meteor cause an accident?”

_“No! The cylinder was the meteor! Thank god there weren’t a lot of people out driving. It would have crushed a car flat. It’s broken the asphalt and-”_

“Kim?”

_“A man is approaching it. He’s reaching out to touch it. That green light it’s–oh my god!”_

“Kim what’s happening?”

“ _Oh my god! Oh my god! Run! Oh my god!_ RUN! **RU** -”

“Kim!… _KIM!_ …line’s dead. Uh, um, folks, I don’t know what that was about. Dave’s working on calling her back. We’re going to go to commercial.”

–

“You can’t just shut us do-”

–

“Hello to…anyone’s who’s listening. I guess. This is Andrea Hill, back on pirate radio after a good three years of being legit. The men in black, for lack of a better term, came to WMBS-FM to clean house, so to speak. I wasn’t, uh, very accommodating, so I was summarily fired…I checked back into the station while I was setting my old equipment up. Dave’s got my old job. He’s assuring people everything’s fine and there’s nothing to worry about, but…

“I still haven’t heard back from Kim. After I got kicked out, I tried heading down to the coffee shop where she was last seen. It’s pretty far from the station, farther than the nearest Starbucks, but Jules, my old manager, is very particular about her coffee. The military have, I think, five blocks completely shut down. No one gets in. No one gets out.

“I heard gunfire. Someone screamed off in the distance. That’s when an army guy shoved me back into my car and told me I’d be arrested if I stuck around a second longer. There weren’t any ambulances going in.

“I don’t think I’m going to hear back from Kim.”

–

“Aliens. Believe or not, that’s what’s going down folks. My sources are giving me scattered reports of a shadowy paramilitary task force tracking down UFOs…can we still call them UFOs if we’ve identified them? I mean, we know what they are…I digress.

“I think I’m going to take some callers. Let’s hear what some of you listening have to say.

“And we have our first caller. Good morning, friend. What’s on your mind?”

_“This is fucking nuts is what this is.”_

“Ha, no kidding. I still can’t believe it. Part of me might not if I hadn’t seen the military barricade for myself.”

_“Who care about what the goddamn military is doing? Jesus Christ, intelligent extraterrestrial life and they’re hostile. What the fucking fuck?”_

“Yeah, who would have thought. Aliens from mars. It’s something right out of science fiction.”

_“They’re not from mars. We’re certain at this point that Mars is just being used as a staging area. We’ve theorized for years that if Earth was going to be attacked by some hostile force, Mars would be key for defense…or invasion. What’s worrying is that no one noticed them setting up before all this went down. From what we can see up there now, it must have taken them months to set up shop.”_

 “I…I’m sorry, can I get your name. If that’s alright?”

_“This is Dr. Sutherland, Ms. Hill. In 1993, myself and a number of other astronomers, physicists, and military analysts were put into a think tank to brainstorm what would happen in case a hostile alien force attempted to attack Earth. We came up with a number of projections…none of them pleasant.”_

“That’s really spooky. Not just your predication, I mean, but the fact the government called you guys in to brainstorm at all. It’s like…it makes it sound like they knew or something. I don’t know. Maybe recent events are just making me paranoid.”

_“No. I am confident they suspected something. The way the UN Spokesman talked…yeah, I think they knew.”_

“Shit…but maybe that means they’re prepared.”

_“Don’t count on it. It’s already clear the alien’s technology far outmatches our own…I’ve been looking over our old projections…People are asking why the aliens are here. I doesn’t really matter. We’re screwed no matter what the answer to that question is.”_

“That’s bleak–what the hell?–Ah, fuck. Sorry, doc, gotta run. The feds are here.”

–

“Hello, folks, sorry about the sudden absence. I had to skedaddle when the men in black came knocking on my door. Again. Turns out they don’t like people talking about what’s really going on.

“It’s not just me, either. I’ve heard reports of other news and radio people getting the boot.

“Or worse.

“Suffice it to say, I am not in New York City any longer. For obvious reasons, I cannot tell you where I am.

“I don’t know about you, but I’ve mostly stopped watching the news. They talk about the aliens, sure, but only in an approved way. There’s so much they just aren’t talking about…like the military getting their collective asses kicked. I passed a burnt out convoy on my way out of the city. The soldiers were charred before they even got a chance to get out of their vehicles.

“But, hey, I saw my first UFO two hours ago. A tiny little thing. I saw the light in the distance and jumped out of my car. Ran for the trees and got down low. It fired a blast of green shit as it flew by. Completely melted my car.

“Good thing I wasn’t far from my destination. The equipment here is old, but it’ll give a signal off.

“I’m out in the country side, far away from the city. I’m not sure if I feel safer here or not. No one who can help me if I get in trouble, but on my own I present a smaller target…I just don’t know. But I have a feeling a lot of you out there echo that sentiment.

“I’ve tried giving Dr. Sutherland a call back, but I guess she’s busy. Last time I tried I got that automated ‘this number is no longer in use’ bullshit. I hope she’s okay. I hope everyone out there listening is okay. Stay safe, everyone.”

–

“…supposed to be a kids film. Utterly traumatized me as a child. That scene near the beginning, when it’s coming out of the fog. Scared me shitless. Fuck it and its fucking skittles…aaannnddd I’ve got an incoming call.

“This is Andrea Hill, you’re live.”

_“Andrea.”_

 “Dave? What’s going on? Are you alright? I can barely hear you.”

_“Ha, not really no. I’m on the station’s roof. They finally stopped shelling.”_

“What?”

_“The aliens. They just…a big ship, massive, showed up out of nowhere and started…the military had defenses set up around the city. They got blown away first. Then the aliens crippled the power grid. The water works went next, I think. Listen, they’re trying to destroy the city’s infrastructure.”_

“Dave, are you and the others safe?”

_“They took out the empire state building, which means our transmitter is gone. Andrea, you need to tell people to avoid the cities. They’re goddamn death traps. Manhattan is fucked. Don’t…look, if you’re trying to flee from wherever you are, don’t come to New York. Everyone needs to scatter…God, they’re…I can see some of the aliens on the street. They’re shooting survivors.”_

“Dave get-”

_“I’m going to stay here. I’ve got some binoculars and a good view from up here. Andrea, help me coordinate. If there’s people listening to your broadcast, maybe we can help them avoid danger.”_

“Dave…”

_“Whatever you do, folks, do not head towards the Brooklyn Bridge. The aliens have already shot it down. I’ve got some reports that the Lincoln Tunnel is still intact. Those reports were from almost ten minutes ago, so I don’t know if that’s still true._

_“Mulberry and Houston is crawling with aliens. If you’re there, for god’s sake, keep your head down. Mott doesn’t look so bad. You might make it if you’re quick and quiet….Prince…is cl–uh–no. I think, I think I see something skittering in the shadows over there. Best stay hidden. Let’s see, Bleecker…Bleecker…Bleecker…looks good. Yeah. If you’re hiding on Bleeker it’s safe to move. Jersey and Lafayette…Christ, what is that? A fucking mech?…Oh, oh shit.”_

“Dave?”

_“Some smaller UFOs are doing a flyby. They’re coming up Mulberry now. Everyone find cover! Hide! Hi-”_

“Dave?…Dave?… _Fuck_.”

–

“New York is on fire. I went out during that musical interlude. I can see the glow even from here. That big UFO was leaving just as I got in range to spot it. It was _massive_.

 “I can’t stay. They’re spreading out into the surrounding areas. I gotta…bye, folks.”

–

“If you’ve found this recording, this is the last…testimony, I guess, of Andrea Hill, former WMBS-FM DJ. I had to abandon my radio set up during the aliens attack on the Tri-State area. All I’ve got is this recorder and some of my tapes.

“I’m heading upstate. Getting even further away from civilization. I figured I could record my journey. You know, for future generations. If there is a future generation.

“I’m avoiding the roads. Trying to trail blaze. Thank god my mom put me in the girl scouts as a kid, huh? I hope she’s okay. My parents live in San Diego. I haven’t heard anything from out west in weeks.

“I just climbed to the top of a large hill. It’s so quiet out here. Everything is so still. I could be the last person alive on Earth. Sounds crazy, but standing here…seems all too plausible. This is it. I’m looking at the end of the world.”

–

“Okay, I’m done being dramatic. I got off that hill and ate something. I feel a little better. More energized at least.

“And you know what? It’s not the end of the world as long as I’m still breathing. I think I’m going to focus on worrying about myself. Worrying about the world isn’t going to do me squat out here.

“I can see a cabin in the distance.There could be people inside. Strange how the thought of that frightens me. Maybe I should just-”

“Hey!”

“ _Crap_.”

“What are you doing out here?”

“Just…trying to get by. I didn’t know anyone was out there.”

“Heh.”

“That’s some serious body armor you’ve got. Are you…military?”

“Something like that. Who the fuck are you?”

“Radio disc jockey. No one important.”

“I thought you people preferred ‘radio personality’, these days?”

“To-may-to, to-mah-to. You haven’t told me who you are yet.”

“Squaddie Harrison. XCOM…ex-XCOM.”

“Never heard of it.”

“It’s a load of crap. The UN pulled us out of everywhere and threw us into one cheap basket. Barely any funding. They just gave me a rifle and told me to shoot some aliens. Sounds easy, huh?”

“…Not really.”

“Heh. You’re smarter than us fucking jarheads. You know I’m only four weeks out of bootcamp.”

“That’s-”

“The aliens have weapons that can melt metal. I watched my best buddy turn into goop right next to me.”

“I’m so sor-”

“I ran.”

“From XCOM?”

“From New York. XCOM. Everyone. It’s all fucking bullshit. We can’t fight them.”

“I don’t blame you.”

“‘Deserter’ is still a dirty word, but-but-but I gotta, ah, plan. See? Fighting them now is bullshit. We need time to prepare. I’m going to get my buddies and-and-and whoever else I can find. We’re going to hide in secret. In the underground. Right beneath their goddamn feet. We’ll plan. Slowly and carefully. And when they least expect it…WHAM. We’ll hit them back hard.”

“You want to play the long game?”

“The short game sure as shit isn’t working.”

“How do you know they’re going to stay? What if this is just a drive by run for resources?”

“Then they’ll be gone and we’ll still be here safe…but that’s not why they’re here. I was talking to an XCOM analyst before they sent us to die in NYC. They think the aliens are here to colonize. You know what they’ll do, don’t you?”

“Kill us all?”

“No, worse. They’ll keep us like pets. Feed us. Pamper us. Take away all our worries and fears until the day they send us into the slaughter house one by one. We’re so tiny to them. I saw it out there in New York. We’re _nothing_ to them…Hey! Where are you going?”

“ _Further on up the road.”  
_

“You got a death wish?”

“No more than you!”

–

“That guy from earlier…Harrison?…or something…he sounded nuts when he was talking, but I don’t know. Maybe he isn’t so crazy. I mean, if the aliens have all this tech then they’ll find the guy and his friend for sure. He doesn’t have the equipment or even the skill, I’d say, to keep ahead.

“But is he any crazier than I am? Fleeing civilization and hoping the aliens don’t find me. I guess my goals are a little smaller. I’m not looking to start some rebellion ten years from now…

“…what?….what is that?…hang on…Oh! It’s– _Get them guys! Come on!…Oh, fu-”_

–

“Please don’t be broken. Please don’t be broken. Light! Light’s on. It’s recording.

“Okay, you’re probably wondering what that was about. I just saw the _coolest_ thing. A couple of jets dog fighting a small UFO. I was just close enough to make them out. They _got_ the fucker. I mean, the jets looked like they’d be getting some major repairs, but they got it.

“The UFO went down in a smoking wreck. I can see the smoke from here. I’m trying to make my way away from the sight. I‘m not really keen to find out of there were survivors or if that crash is going to start a forest fire.

“I slipped when it went down. Tumbled down an incline. Too busy cheerleading to watch my step. _Stupid_. But I wasn’t seriously hurt. Just a few bruises.

“Almost makes me think we can win.”

–

“Guess who has a cell phone signal.

“Guess who just found out the UN surrendered.

“That’s it then. Occupation.

 _“What are they going to do to us_?”

–

“I have shelter. I have supplies to last a little. Longer still if I go hunting and fishing. Thanks for showing me how, dad.

“Before I shut my phone off again, my mom called. The signal was garbage, but I got the gist of what she was saying. She wants me in Cali. The war’s over. No one else has to die. No one has to hide.

“Mom’s always been an optimist. I tried telling her we don’t know what the aliens want yet, but…

“I got her to put dad on, confident he would see reason and he did! He knows. He understands.

“But he’s staying with her.

“I’m not surprised. I told them I loved them and hung up. I spent the next day or so hiking to a new place well out of reception range. I don’t know. Just the idea of being connected to the network in any way gives me a bad feeling.

“I am officially off the grid.”

–

“A small group came through the area. I was too scared to try and talk to them.”

–

“I don’t know what day it is. My phone died and I lost track.

“I’ve gotten over my fear of others. Amazing the kind of courage having a shotgun gives you. I trade with the friendlier looking groups that come through my neck of the woods. A lot of them are fleeing the cities. People are being executed in droves. Military and political holdouts, mostly. They aren’t public executions, but everyone knows they’re being carried out.

“Buffalo’s mayor and some of his staff apparently went out in a blaze of gunfire. Rumor has it the mayor escaped, but the person I talked to was doubtful. The aliens–the big hulking ones with the rebreather masks–stormed city hall. Their weapons melted through any opposition they found.

“But he’s a legend now. I suppose heroes have been made out of less before.

“You know what, though? It’s not just government people getting killed. I’ve heard stories of people just disappearing. I met a woman whose mother and sister were seized. They weren’t doing anything. They weren’t part of the protests. The two of them just got snatched in the middle of the night. She fled with her five year old daughter, afraid the same would happen to them.

“I found them a mile from my humble shack. She–Aisha–had broken her leg. I don’t even know how she made it this far. She was unconscious when I got there. I only found her because of her daughter’s screams.

“I splinted the leg the best I could and made a quick sled to drag her back to my shack. Aisha and Dana are going to be saying with me for awhile.

“I need to find some medicine or, better yet, a doctor. There’s gotta be something. Someone. Somewhere.

–

“Maybe I’m not the unluckiest person in the world. I went out to trade with a group passing through and one of them was a nurse. Not the doctor I was hoping for, but, hey, I’ll take it.

“He even had some supplies he nicked from his clinic before he took off. He thinks Aisha is going to be okay, but it’s hard to tell out here without the proper medical equipment.

“He insisted on sticking around until her leg is healed up and his group isn’t leaving without him.

“So here the nine of us are. Getting along so far. One of the guys is a dad traveling with his own daughter. He’s looking after Dana. Thank god for that. I don’t know the first thing about kids. I’ve been at my wits end trying to figure out how to take care of her. I couldn’t get her to stop crying. Paul just swoops in and gets her smiling in ten minutes. Small mercies.

“Me and a woman named Pam are setting up some better early warning systems just in case. Bigger group means easier to spot. Exactly the kind of thing I wanted to avoid by coming out here, but I’m not going to just kick out an injured woman and her daughter. I mean, I could leave. The thing is, if I keep running every time I run into someone I’m going to run out of places to hide eventually.

“I’m going to need a bigger shack.”

–

“There’s fifteen of us now. A group of high school kids fled right out of the city after the new ‘ADVENT’ administration brought out shock batons and gas on protestors. One of the boys had some nasty burns. Noah had to amputate two of his fingers. The last of the antibiotics is going to fight the infection. 

“We’re planning…well, we’re planning a raid. Let’s just call it what it is. We need things like more medical supplies and blankets. We aren’t going to find them out here in the forest.

“Noah, Paul, the wounded, and the children are going to hold down the fort. So to speak. Though, one of the high school kids keeps insisting she wants to come along. She’s a spunky girl with fading green hair calling herself Harper. Says she’s eighteen. I don’t know, though. She looks so young.

“I told her if something happens, someone’s going have to be here to deal with it. She’s mulling that over right now…I think I accidentally made her head of security while we’re gone.

“That’s an odd thought. We don’t really have assigned roles. Not consciously, but I think we all took on a job around here. That’s not a big deal, but I think I’m kind of the leader? And…I really don’t know how I feel about that.

“I’m only the leader by virtue that this place was mine before they settled in. I’m not certain I have the right kind of qualification for a task like this.

“…if I get back, I’m going to need to call a meeting or something. I don’t know.”

–

“We’re back! And in one piece, even better. It was weird going into town. ADVENT is getting ready to do some _major_ construction project. I have no clue what they’re doing, but it looked like it’s encompassing the whole town.

Anyway, we separated into two teams. Pam the ex-cop leading one and Poker the con leading the other…they’re married, by the way. Don’t know if I mentioned that. They didn’t tell me how _that_ came about and I didn’t ask.

“I was with Poker. We thought a clinic was going to be hard to break into, but they were all abandoned. They even left all the equipment behind. The job was as simple as crowbarring the door open and filling our stolen car with boxes.

“Pam’s group had it harder. They had a shopping list with things like blankets and winter clothes. They ended up getting into a shoot out with some of the tiny grey aliens. It started a panic in the streets that let them get away in the crowd.

“They didn’t get everything, but they got some things. And they’re still alive. I’m calling the whole operation a roaring success.

“When we got back–after making sure we wouldn’t be followed–I expressed my concerns from earlier. Everyone agreed to hold a vote.

“I won. _Fuckers_.

“At least Pam is officially head of security. She knows what she’s doing. Makes me feel safe.

“I don’t have a lot of recording space left. Unless something really exciting happens, this may very well be my last recording for the foreseeable future.

“Thanks for listening, whoever you are.”

–

“Testing…testing…one, two, three…”

–

“Still works. What do you know?

“It’s been some time since I last recorded…a few years, at least. Things got simultaneously more busy and more boring. Funnily enough, when you’ve got yourself a nice foothold, other people want to come join you.

“We’ve got a little community here in the woods. Forty of us getting by with what we got. ADVENT sniffs around every now and then, but they mostly leave us alone. They can’t really prove we were behind those raids, I guess. That’ll come to something one day. For now, though, we just keep our eyes on them.

“Oh, hey, we got a surgeon! I didn’t tell you that. Noah was so relieved he almost burst into tears. Made the rest of us relax too, let me tell ya. 

“We’ve got about six children with us now. Breaks my heart that this is all they’ll ever know. Cold nights and rations instead of fruit loops and power rangers.

“Mmmmm, ah! Remember Harrison? That dude who wanted to kick start a rebellion. He showed up here alone in the dead of winter that first year, pretty messed up with frostbite. There were some other weird wounds, but Harrison wasn’t talking. As in mute. Hasn’t said a word at all.

“We had a traveler come through two years ago who recognized him. I wasn’t sure if the guy was relieved or furious to see him. Pam thought for sure the stranger was going to beat his ass, but he just bought another bottle of moonshine from Poker and went on his way.

“Harrison cried when he left. I wish there was something I could do to help him.

“Scars and wounds aside, we’re still here. I think that’s a victory, in a way.”

–

“Right, yeah, you know when I said that situation with ADVENT would come to something?

“Yeah.

“It wasn’t us. There was another larger settlement twenty miles from here. ADVENT fire bombed it and blamed ‘fringe elements’. Their twenty-four hours news circuit is posting pictures and ‘confessions’ from rebels.

“It’s a goddamn false flag. That’s what’s going down now. They’re going to wipe us all out and those dumb fuckers in the cities will watch with a smile on their face.

“ADVENT is saying they’re going to crack down on rebels. We’ve got to prepare. This is going to get ugly, but if they think we’re going to sit around and let them slaughter us, they have another thing coming to ‘em.

“If they want resistance, they’ll get it.”

–

—

—-

—–

“What you just heard are clips from tapes I’ve held onto for the last twenty years. I played them for you all because I think now, more than ever, we need to a reminder of where it all began and how we got to where we are now. 

“I’m Andrea Hill and you’re listening to Resistance Radio.

   “How about some CCR?”


End file.
